As a social landlord we are subject to legal requirements to complete repair works of all kinds and maintain properties in line with fire legislation. Completion of fire risk assessments compliance is a measured performance indicator that is reported annually to government and the regulator.
Regardless of these external factors, the Council has always been committed to providing good quality, safe, housing and is committed to tenant and leaseholder safety. Therefore it is important we complete the require safety risk assessments.
The aggregate amount of these subscription elements is above the level at which competitive quotations are normally required. However, E and J Fire have completed other fire safety risk assessments for the housing stock and a change of provider at this stage could lead to inconsistency and the use of resources at a challenging moment. The Risk assessments are done on a cyclical basis, annually for the sheltered schemes and less frequently in the general stock. This group of assessments is due in March 2026 and the next ones in November 2026. This gives us the opportunity to commission a small number of assessments in the short term, to maintain compliance, and then look to a procurement exercise for future instructions
Accordingly it is proposed to use exemptions 2.1 (c) and 2.1 (e) from the Procurement Procedure Rules in order to commission E and J Fire to complete risk assessments due this month. A further procurement exercise in the coming months can be conducted in order to ensure that these assessments are procured as effectively as possible.